Mentoring Partnerships

The heart of YES is our tra­di­tional pro­gram, Men­tor­ing Part­ner­ships.  The men­tor­ing con­cept is cen­tral to our organization’s phi­los­o­phy of improved phys­i­cal, emo­tional, and aca­d­e­mic devel­op­ment.  The pri­mary goals of the men­tor­ing pro­gram are aca­d­e­mic improve­ment, cul­tural enrich­ment, career devel­op­ment, and life skills enhance­ment.  In col­lab­o­ra­tion with teens and their fam­i­lies, we iden­tify and set real­is­tic goals for their aca­d­e­mic and per­sonal devel­op­ment.  This holis­tic approach to ser­vice closes the gap that some­times exists between schools, fam­i­lies, and the com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions that serve them.

Teens who demon­strate sig­nif­i­cant lead­er­ship abil­i­ties and a strong aca­d­e­mic back­ground are cho­sen to undergo our peer men­tor cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram.  To qual­ify for our pro­gram, teens must have at least a 3.0 GPA, be active in at least one extracur­ric­u­lar activ­ity, and exhibit the fol­low­ing qual­i­ties:  matu­rity, respectabil­ity, self-confidence, lead­er­ship poten­tial, and an over­all pos­i­tive out­look on their future.  Each teen who meets these qual­i­fi­ca­tions must be rec­om­mended by an adult who can attest to their high poten­tial as a role model for our younger students.

The cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process con­sists of a three-day train­ing con­fer­ence.  Twenty hours of train­ing are pro­vided by licensed pro­fes­sion­als in the human ser­vices in the areas of effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, anger man­age­ment and con­flict res­o­lu­tion, estab­lish­ing pos­i­tive rela­tion­ships, decision-making processes, and lead­er­ship devel­op­ment.  After their train­ing, each teen must take a writ­ten assess­ment to gauge the knowl­edge they have received as well as a for­mal inter­view with our staff to assess their matu­rity, self-confidence, and sen­si­tiv­ity to self, oth­ers, and impor­tant issues.  Once cer­ti­fied as peer men­tors, each teen is paired with one of our younger stu­dents to begin the men­tor­ing process.

As a men­tor, these teens act as pos­i­tive role mod­els in the lives of our younger stu­dents.  These teen men­tors serve as tutors, coun­selors, medi­a­tors, and best friends when called on by their mentees.  The mentor-mentee rela­tion­ship is rein­forced by at least one tele­phone con­tact per week, one face-to-face con­tact per month, and addi­tional sup­port as needed.  Men­tors are encour­aged to become an inte­gral part of their mentees’ lives.  Through expo­sure to cul­tural and edu­ca­tional activ­i­ties, monthly fun engage­ments, and one-on-one time with each other, a bond is forged between men­tor and mentee which can­not be broken.

We rec­og­nize the men­tor­ing work and over­all achieve­ments of all of our teens dur­ing our annual awards and recog­ni­tion ban­quet held in May.  Teens receive plaques and cer­tifi­cates for out­stand­ing teen men­tor­ing; aca­d­e­mic, ath­letic, and per­sonal achieve­ments; com­mu­nity ser­vice; and over­all par­tic­i­pa­tion with YES.  Grad­u­at­ing seniors receive col­lege schol­ar­ships and a grad­u­a­tion dinner.